Searching
by Jennifer Darknight
Summary: Before all that Beautification Society nonsense, before he had praised the ground she had walked on, before there were puzzles, shadow games, and Yuugi, it started with just a boy, watching a little girl from his window. ::Honda Miho Pastfic::


**Title: **Searching

**Characters: **Hiroto Honda, Miho Nosaka.

**Rating: **G

**Pairing: **Sliiiiiight Honda x Miho if you squint.

**Genre: **Friendship

**Notes: **Pre-series, Pastfic, Toei-verse.

* * *

It was either gold or silver, he was never sure. Her original ribbon, anyway. It had changed so many colors over the years, with each hairstyle she wore and each favorite color of the day, it had evolved, moving along with her pale tresses in a way that always seemed to look right, even when on all other girls it would be nothing but ridiculous.

Well, maybe it was silver. But with the moon shining over the thing, stars sparkling overhead, it was hard to tell. She looked thinner than she was, paler, and with the tears staining her cheeks it most certainly didn't help matters. It was hard to believe she was only eight, and not six or five. From his perch by the window, she looked smaller, younger, but her sobs were loud enough to reach even his ears, even when her hair was hanging over her face and pale hands were searching the ground, muddying themselves.

What was she looking for? And what was she doing out, anyway? It was late-little girls never went outside late, not unless they wanted to get in trouble with their moms. At least, that's what happened in _his_ family.

"Hey!" he wasn't sure why he was calling to her. She was a _girl_, and girls did weird things like went on tea parties and played with dolls and did weird things like that. They didn't really do anything interesting or fun. Still, Honda found himself doing it anyway.

The little girl stopped in mid-sob, glancing up, searching around.

"Up here, in the window!"

_That_ got her attention. She turned around, staring up at him.

"You shouldn't yell like that!" The little girl called back, half-sobbing, ignoring her own words. "You'll get in trouble and the grown-ups will be mad at you!"

"Look who's talking! You're yellin' just as much as me!" he replied.

"Am not! Miho doesn't yell!"

"Are too! And you're gonna get in trouble, too, goin' round out at night!"

The girl looked down a moment, only to wordlessly turn her back, kneeling down on the ground and doing what she did before.

What was she doing, anyway? She looked like she was searching for something-but she was in her nightdress. Only idiots when out in their pajamas in the middle of the night, even if it was summer. Though at the very least, she didn't look like she was baking in this heat-but it was hard to bake in something that was white and loose like that. At least, he thought it was white-it had a lot of marks of dirt on it, and was that a tear on the skirt?

Hiroto Honda watched a minute, tilting his head to get a better look.

He waited a moment. The girl didn't seem to want to stop crying.

"Hey!"

She stopped, turning towards him again.

"Whatcha lookin' for, anyway?"

She shook her head, preparing to turn away.

"Betcha it was your mom's. You lost it and she's gonna be mad at you, and that's why you're looking for it, right?"

The girl stiffened, but said nothing. She just turned away, moving towards a spiny bush, preparing to look in it.

"I'm right, ain't I?"

She said nothing.

"I lost somethin' of my mom's once, too! Just last week! It's nothin' to be ashamed of!"

Okay, so he'd thrown it out the window in a fit of anger, but that was beside the point. He had been a bit of a brat, then, but he didn't understand what his mom saw in that old ring anyway. It didn't have any shiny stones in it, and it had some weird bit of green on it. He was doing her a favor, getting rid of it...At least, that's what he told himself.

But still, the girl was crying. She was standing still and crying in that loud cry that was sure to wake up the neighborhood if he didn't do something. It wasn't like he felt sorry for her, kneeling around and getting her clothes ripped like that. It's just that if she didn't stop crying, she was going to wake up his mom and then he was really going to get it. His mom was going to get up, his Dad was going to get up, and then everything would go to hell and back, just because a girl was standing outside crying her lungs out because she lost something that she needed to find.

...

That was what he told himself when he stole out the window, landing hard in the bushes with a loud cry that caused the girl to look up, gasp, and, as he crawled out with a branch on his butt and leaves stuck in his hair, _laugh_.


End file.
